AUGUST 7, 2006

Poor old Liuzzi

Tonio Liuzzi has a right to feel rather abused at the moment. It is looking more and more likely that Red Bull is going to keep him in Scuderia Toro Rosso next year rather than promoting him to Red Bull Racing and he is being blamed for the crash that took Kimi Raikkonen out of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After the race the McLaren team press release quoted Kimi Raikkonen as saying that "Liuzzi really slowed down on the racing line and there was just nowhere for me to go except into the back of him".

This is not quite the full story. Raikkonen and Liuzzi are old pals from karting days and they did discuss the incident after the race. According to Liuzzi, Kimi explained that he was in the process of letting de la Rosa through and was looking in his mirrors when Liuzzi tried to help him out by moving to the side of the track and lifting off slightly to give the McLarens the momentum to pass him. Unfortunately as he was not looking Raikkonen went straight into the back of Liuzzi and ruined his race as well as Kimi's.